First few days of the Year of the Goat bring good news to Greenhandshake. Bloomberg Business has selected Greenhanshake to introduce to readers all around the world.

An innovative online marketplace is helping newcomers to the U.S. to find the help they need from members of their own community who are already settled in the country.

Greenhandshake is a trusted community marketplace which enables people who have recently arrived in the U.S. to connect with one another and to find local help from people from their own country who are already established in the U.S. and are familiar with the way of life here. This online bidding platform enables its users to post tasks with which they need help and which other users can then bid on. Tasks can range from simple requests for a lift from the airport to help with complex immigration issues.

Moving to a new country can be a challenge, even for someone who has lived in many countries around the world. As well as homesickness, the complexities of a foreign language and the inevitable stage of culture shock, many new arrivals face the added difficulty of not knowing anyone to whom they can turn for help, advice or moral support.

Son Hoang Nguyen, the CEO and Founder of Greenhandshake experienced the challenge of adapting to a new culture first hand when he moved to the U.S. As he explains: “No matter how prepared we are, foreign students and immigrants inevitably encounter unforeseen challenges with both the culture and language.” Adapting to life in the U.S. and helping others to do so gave him the idea of creating an online marketplace especially geared towards the needs of U.S. immigrants and, in May 2014, Greenhandshake was launched. He says: “I realized that there was a real need for sharing information between new arrivals, experienced immigrants and those born in the U.S.”

Recent recognition for the value of the Greenhandshake marketplace has come in the form of a recommendation from The Association of Vietnamese Students and Professionals (sinhvienusa.org), which described it as “a bridge for Vietnamese people in America to stay closer and find local help.”

Matthew Michel, Founder and CEO of Tinker Tailor Inc., is a member of Greenhandshake’s advisory board. He says: “In the past, new arrivals in the U.S. may have been able to find the help they needed by piecing together information from a number of websites. Now they only need to visit Greenhandshake to find themselves in touch with a trusted community of people who can help.”